I like your point about human rights and being kept at idle, like solitary confinement being worse then being in the yard, etc. It’s an interesting angle to view things at. Thanks.

The only way to get work for prisoners that has any meaning or value to society is to bring that work in from the outside. Otherwise the work given to prisoners would be meaningless repetitive nonsense that would benefit no one.

In order bring work in from the outside there has to be some profit element in the deal otherwise it just would not be viable or worth while for any company to consider doing.

As for paying prisoners more money for the work they do, this is debatable, if they where paid more, then the incentive for outside companies to bring work into the confines of a prison would simply disappear. Having worked with a company that uses prison labour in this way, it appears the costs in working inside a prison to the outside company are quite extensive due to the added security restriction etc.

I think that before we start berating companies for using prison labour and “making money out of prisoners” we ought to consider the fact that many UK prisons are run by private companies that earn a large fortune out of running these prisons. Judging by the size of the companies I saw using the prison workforce the companies running the prisons earn many times more then those simply bringing work into the prisons, who tend to be quite small companies in my experience.

It should also be noted the prisons have targets set by the government to bring this type of work into the prisons, this is driven by European law and human rights. I.e its against a prisoner human rights to be kept idle and locked up there cells. From my experience the prisoners would rather work through their time then sit idle.

To be completely fair they did bad things, we need to keep that in mind, also the cheap labor could be used to help society. Cheap furniture/clothing/household items, etc for low income families comes to mind.

I think the real solution is to be transparent about how much things cost, and we need to keep in mind that we can’t allow for slave labor of prisoners just for those profits to go into CEO’s pockets. If we are to do that then it needs to go to the potential rehabilitation of the inmate, and in dropping the costs so lower income people can save money on essentials that are made by inmates hands.

PS: This is definitely one of the most thought provoking articles relating to inmates I’ve read in a long time.

You make a good point about repaying the cost for room and board.

I think as long as BigCo is paying at least minimum wage for the work then perhaps something should be deducted from that income before the inmate gets it.

The point being that the tax payer and inmate benefit from the work being done as opposed to shareholders of BigCo getting cheap labour.

That said, I’m not entirely opposed to the idea. But, as a tax-payer, the idea that someone is getting free room and board on my dime while they make a good income grates a bit. What does it cost to keep someone incarcerated for a year these days? $40k? If the inmate were to repay this — the sort of rent and bills every other entrepreneur has to pay — then the idea would be more palatable.

Thanks, Annaliese.
I hope business is going well since we met a few months back at the YES event.

Hi Elaine,

Re engagement, your’e right. Some – perhaps many – wouldn’t be fully engaged with it.

Hence the need to have the write proper plans and put the effort in to pitch a panel before getting mentoring/funding resources.

You have to be committed to go through that process. And it’d have to be a decent and sustainable idea to pass the panel,

The only thing that is difficult to judge is the willingness of offenders to participate and to be fully engaged with this process.